Full Timing, What are the pro's & con's

Lorry Ball

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I'm thinking of going long-timing or even Full-Timing, In the future , What are the pro's & con's that you have found, I have my daughters address to use as a base,
Thanks
Lorry
 
We don't full time rather long termers are us, I did consider full timing but the sale of our Bungalow fell through at one stage so that put a temporary hold on things, I think officialdom is the big problem to full timing, you need to be on the electorial role somewhere for things like phone contracts , credit cards etc. and if you are not actually living at the address you state to your insurance company you can run into problems in the event of a claim, although you can get full time insurance at a cost.If you sell your home, will you be able to get back on the market if you need to in the future, we planned to buy a smaller property and let it whilst we were not needing it, but that then starts a chain of further potential problems that you are trying to avoid by opting out of the Rat Race.You need to make provision for somewhere to stay in the event of your vehicle being disabled or in a Garage for repair,mundane things like your washing become problems in the event of prolonged rainy days etc, Launderettes can get expensive, all that may sound negative but must be considered, on the plus side you have the freedom of the road to go almost where you want ,when you want, stay in the sun for ever if you like, full timing in England is possible but it probably means staying on sites and I don't fancy that much.You will need to return to England at least once a year for MOT,to keep your van legal, tax and insurance can be done on line,so if you feel you can live in a confined space for long periods I.E. your van go for it,as I say we are long termers but still have our home base and that works for us, Happy travels Malc.
 
we lived for just over 18 months in our van ,we used my daughters address for the vans legal side ie log book insurance and driving licence .i asked my insurance company about full time cover and they stated that i was covered to stay away from the insured address for up to 9 months at a time in the uk ,i cannot be shure about abroad that i did not go into , as for the electoral roll i am not on it now and never will, i have not been on an electoral roll for over 10 years now . we did not use a camp site in all the time we were in the van either and may we never had a problem parking up in car parks or literaly anywhare in fact the ammount of people with or without vans said how much they would love to do what we were doing .as for your washing we did use the laundrets and yes they can be expensive ,but then again you dont have many expeses fulltiming just food and petrol . the van can be a worry ie reliability but we had little probs with ours and it is 26 ish year old just keep up with the maintainance ,if the worst hapens then yor breakdown cover will recover you to your daughters where you can stay untill the van is repaired ,on other thing is always keep enough money to rent a small flat for a while in case of a major upset ie illness or a total failure of the van. ther are more things to consider but if you are willing to mabey get rid of most if not all of your former life and adopt a newer living style such as your clothing needs will end up as jeans and t shirts in the summer and not much differance winter time you will find your eating habbits and food bill will change think about it and mabey spend a few weeks away to start off with while you are selling up .our full time spell in the van was in one way forced on us by circumstances illness and loss of work but i can say we loved our 18 months in the van and i still miss it ,we now have a new appartment now and although it is ok i still long for waking up somewhare different and with the outlook you only get in your van no one can tell you to do it or not to do it it is only a decision you can take but you must be prepaired to spend time in an enclosed space with your partner some find it a problem but i must say we did not .there will seem to be problems at first like toilet disposal and the fresh water concern these are all things you will learn quickly you will come accros other full timers or others that spend long spells in there vans and as i say its a learning curve you will enjoy .this is just my thourghts on the time we had in the van every body will find things diferent ifd you need specific answers then post and i will try and answer ps another thing is money worries we lived on the minimum we could and i think about 100 quid a week is the least you can expect to live on for food fuel and a bit of booze and fags and we did ok . ps one problem we dident have in the van was idiots with there sterio full tilt i have just had to tell my next door neighbour to turn his down or i would stick it where the monkey puts it nuts and the sun never shines
 
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just a few dowsides to house living. rent /mortgage.council tax. tv licence. electric bills ,gas bills .water rates . phone bills. internet costs. sky tv. plus as soon as our van is back on the road we have those costs too when we only hads the van costs
 
I'm living full time in the van, and have done for almost a year, but I've still got the house. A lot of the time I do stay at the house on the drive or I stay away on campsites or near friend's houses.

Later on I intend to get the house rented out to provide an income, but still use it as postal address so I wont have the no fixed address issues.

The biggest change I found was not having the same amount of possessions, like number of clothes or books etc. I've got more of those stored in the house, but I make a point of not going in there except to check the post and feed the cats, and I only use stuff from the van. The internet has taken the place of paper books etc. Just having a good laptop with mobile broadband saves a lot of space.
 
yes your possesions fall they have to due to space in the van and also weight ,but as for books try joining libraries also they have free internet or you can use wifi or a pay as you go dongle you can also get a contract one if you prefer as your bank cards are regestered at an address , we have library cards from all over. you can rent out your house but if you needed to return for any reason you will have problems with the tennants , best bet is sell and keep money to rent if you have problems, you can easily short term rent untill things sort themselves out it is a whole different way of life living in a van full time as opposed to living for shorter periods and still having your house to go back to as i say fulltiming and going away for a month or two and coming back to your house for things you need are totaly different things the latter is what we will be doing as from next year
 
mandrake said:
just a few dowsides to house living. rent /mortgage.council tax. tv licence. electric bills ,gas bills .water rates . phone bills. internet costs. sky tv. plus as soon as our van is back on the road we have those costs too when we only hads the van costs
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I take your point here ,but it is not that bad, as whilst the house is unoccupied there is no Gas bill, no Electricity bill, no water bill, we don't have a land phone line only mobiles so no phone bill at the house,no sky bills as we don't have that and I own my Bungalow outright so no mortgage.Keeping the Bungalow is still cheaper [ for us ] than paying for storage for the things one wants to keep.TV licence is also needed to watch TV in your van, so the licence for the Bungalow covers that too.
 
DON'T DO IT because if you go, us that are left behind have to work harder to keep the big wheel turning, my tip would be learn another language set off abroad and do some light work perhaps one day a week and meet new friends, learn language better, working on European campsites for example 1 day's work = 1 week free camping but be prepared to clean toilets, cut grass, pick fruit etc (keeps you fit too).

GOOD LUCK I say with envy.
 
Check your Insurance

Posts from other sources:

I was with Comfort for a year, no real problems, thought they were quite human! However I changed to get extra green card time in Morocco with Safeguard. I thought I swapped policies like for like, as they told me, not so, I am not insured to drive any other vehicles third party fire and theft, and yet I was on the Comfort policy. The wording on the policy document about the 'exclusion' is scandalous, nobody can understand it!
I URGE YOU CHECK YOUR POLICIES especially if your van is a home conversion, the likelyhood is you are not insured for what you think you are, cheers Tony
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I spoke to Comfort this morning at great length and this is my understanding of the conversation. Apologies to Comfort if it varies with their interpretation as I am still a little confused.
The gist is that if you spend more time in your motorhome than in your house then you are deemed to be full timing. You have to declare this information which will be passed onto the underwriter who will then make a decision whether or not to increase your premium. Apparently this applies whether you own your property,rent or reside with a relative or friend. If you do not supply this information, in the event of a claim your insurance will be null and void.
If I stay home a week and go away in the van for a fortnight and keep repeating that during the insurance period, am I deemed a fulltimer? Does the same apply if I do 4 months then 3 months? Apparently yes.
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Read your insurance documents, don't just skim them. Check anything you have doubts about and get the answer in writing. It is your duty to inform them of any material facts. It is not a case of they don't need to know, or they didn't ask the right questions.
 
i do think that the members like john thompson are the ones to give you the best advice as they are fulltiming and have done so for a while, our time in the van as i hinted in an earlier post was somewhat forced upon us. i am shure other members that are living that life will be along in due course ,yes your insurance is the most important thing to get sorted ,then most other things will fall into place as you go on.i have read zipnolans comment and if we could afford it beleive you and me that is the way we would do it, leave this country behind to fester in its own juces.
 
I'd always keep the property because the mortgage will be paid off. It will provide income and long term investment, and also a fixed address. Renting is simply dead money to me.

As for tennants I would do it either through an agency or a guarantor scheme on fixed contracts so if the tennants default, the guarantor has to pay.
 
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